Cornivore Cooking - Gluten Free Cornbread

I have been experimenting with some paleo and gluten free recipes.  Because of my Celt and Native American blood, I don't do great on a daily diet heavy in carbs (particularly gluten, not that it ever stops Saturday pancake madness, or the Sunday Scottish Tater Tot Toss).  I'm not totally intolerant,  the Scandahoovian Pastry Gene is still there  But I found lately, that during the work week, having fruit for breakfast and then eating simple lean proteins with just lot of veggies or veggies and gluten free grains me more stable blood sugar and more energy, reserving waffle coma as the occasional treat.

I love the taste and mouth feel of buttery cornbread, but corn is a grain, and if I'm going for a paleo version of gluten free bread, I'm going to try and tweak a recipe to do just that. So I tinkered with some grain-free flours, trying to get something that resembled cornbread in mouth feel and texture with a buttery taste like good cornbread.  I made a couple big batches of this, took it to work for a few to sample, and there was nothing left but crumbs and I was  asked to write the recipe out on about a  dozen slips of paper on my lunch break (some just liked it, some have family members with Celiac). Plain or served with some honey, it's a treat and pairs of so nicely with sausages, bacon or a nice venison stew at supper.

click to enlarge picture

No, it doesn't taste exactly like cornbread, but if you are simply out of cornmeal or are avoiding all grains it's a tasty substitute.  It's extremely moist and tender with a wonderful buttery flavor. Don't let making Ghee scare you away, it's not hard.  Ghee is basically clarified butter that is cooked a bit longer until the clarified butter is golden and the milk solids at the bottom are toasted, (watch it doesn't burn).   In addition to having a high smoke point which makes it a great replacement for vegetable oils, without the lactose and casein, its' easy to digest for those who can't do dairy and it adds a nutty depth of flavor that's good on so many things (like roasted sweet potatoes).

There is a a recipe/step-by-step tutorial for ghee over here. (Oh and Michelle's cookbook is wonderful, as entertaining as it is gourmet.  Can you say smashed steak skewers with cherry barbecue sauce?)

Range Gluten Free "Corn"bread

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Almond Flour
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour (I used Bob's Red Mill, slightly larger grind which is great for this recipe)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 large eggs
2 Tablespoons Honey
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup  Ghee (made with a good quality, grass-fed butter) nuked for about 20 seconds to warm it up for blending.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Mix dry ingredients in one medium sized bowl, wet ingredients in another, smaller bowl.  Combine and stir until mixed (mixture will be quite thick).  Place in pan lined with parchment paper or sprayed with olive oil based non stick spray and spread mixture in pan (use a knife to smooth the top).

Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.